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Anti-Vaxxer Tries To Prove Vaccines Cause Autism, Someone Finds A Genius Way To Show They’re Wrong

It’s been a raging debate for what seems like forever already, yet the anti-vaccination topic seems to have more and more people confused. Despite the lack of substantial research proving that vaccines are as harmful as those groups would like us to believe, anti-vaxxers try their best to come up with arguments to prove everyone otherwise. It is not rare that the discussion about vaccines quickly brings up the topic of autism (despite the myth being repeatedly debunked), and this internet user decided to use the correlation of the number of vaccines given to the U.S. children and the number of autism diagnoses as a proof to their argument. However, people quickly responded to the original post by providing their own ‘arguments’, in a hilarious way of course. Scroll down to read the full post, and the discussion that followed, below and tells us what you think! (Facebook cover image: PAHO)

Someone decided to use correlation to ‘prove’ that vaccines cause autism

The post sparked a discussion online

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it is just utter common sense to vaccinate. Herd immunity only works so long as the entire herd are immune. The huge increase in contagious childhood diseases(that once were eradicated) over the last few years is entirely down to antivaxers thinking they are special

Actually, to be accurate, herd immunity requires that a sufficiently large proportion of the population be immune, so that the remaining proportion of non-immune individuals are protected by a broken chain of potential infection. It's inherently the definition of herd immunity - the immunity of the greater proportion protects the minor proportion. And the greater the proportion of immune individuals, the greater the protection for the non-immune ones. It might sound like pedantry but it's important to get the facts right in a conversation such as this, otherwise anti-vaxxers will focus on the errors as proof of overall incorrectness.

It really is madness. I’ve worked with autistic children for many years. Me and most who work with that population agree that its something that occurs in the womb during development. Why? It’s the shocking amount of identical twins we see with autism. Twins who no doubt shared the same amniotic sac and were subject to the same developmental issues. It’s not genetic that’s clear too. We just have to find out what’s going on in development. A lot of think it is something in the environment, chemical, or otherwise that is used very commonly within the last 20 years that is causing this issue in some women while they are pregnant. One day the mystery will be solved and these antivaxers will be put to shame.

My generation is hopefully the last one that had significant numbers of kids with polio, German measles, and whooping cough and having seen friends live with that I cannot imagine the level of selfishness it takes for an antivaxxer to be willing to risk one's child suffering from those rather than be autistic.

I must be of the same generation I will never forget the twins who both had been victims of polio in 1970 we were age 6 or 7 - both in metal calipers from the waist down - all it takes for protection is a pink sugar lump

We used to have chicken pox parties - seriously. Sounds really odd - but chicken pox was less serious the younger you were and parents would deliberately allow their child to contract it to "get it over with" dont know if there is a vaccine against it now = personally didnt get it til i was 12 and it was horrible

I do know what you are saying and, in fact, agree. However, by saying this it looks like you give some credence to the vaccine causing autism. The message that it doesn't is the single most important fact. The vaccine does not cause autism.

And some say they won't vaccinate because of the fact they don't want to put money in big pharma's pocket while acting like it doesn't cost a fortune for iron lungs, wheelchairs, 24 hour nursing care for life and..oh yeah..baby sized coffins......

how about how much the extreme prices of insurance & medi-care have shot through the roof once smokers were made to be punished, banished, carried all our sins, only to be greatly overtaken by the overweight & obese sky rocketing medical care. yeah, it's all a fine mess, ain't it though.

It isn't hate. Firstly, people don't really think their child runs the risk of becoming sick or dead if they don't vaccinate, they think it's a tiny, almost impossible risk. (We know they increase the risk but they bypass that.) People are good at convincing themselves of what they want to believe. People are scared of autism, not because they hate autistic children, but because they are scared that they won't be able to cope with a disabled child. It's fear about their abilities. It's an emotional response and so they seek the rational to justify it. I don't agree with anti-vaxxers at all but people fear what they don't understand.

Here we go again! Anti-vaxxers are utter morons and there is no valid argument. Lies, damned lies and statistics - you can make them show anything as the responses prove. Autism not caused by vaccines. End of.

the anti vaxxers even make an issue of it - Declaring on social media that they refuse to have their little darling immune to killer contagious childhood diseases - and the parents themselves would have been immunised as children

thank you @ Chris Jones. there is absolutely no scientific proof. not vaccinating babies or children of any age is signing their death warrant as parents. if you can really live with that; deal with that yourself for eternity.

I get the idea that parents actually WANT their kids to be diagnosed as somewhere on the Autistic spectrum. This will excuse bad behaviour due to bad parenting. Why else would parents drag their unwilling children all over the place just to claim victory

of course they do, it's much easier than what they actually do to account for the screeching fests of their 3-9 yr. olds running around planes, restaurants, destroying the place, making a mess, keeping everyone ultra tense & stressed out. while the parents are ignoring it all with their headphones tuned into their i-phones... oh he/she's autistic - it's OK.... No it's not! grow up - quit ignoring your kids & spend time raising the, listening to them & being with them, no wonder they can't communicate, relate to people or know how to behave - you don't.

Haha, nice graphs. I remember when I was studying probability theory/statistics at uni our teacher told us a fun story - at one point the scientists in one of the European countries decided to do certain research(can't remember the details unfortunately). And...they found that apparently the number of babies being born correlates pretty closely with the number of storks in the area. So...babies are brought by storks after all?! But after more research they found out it's in fact the other way round - the country had recently passed a law that made it easier for newly wed couples to get their own houses(lots of new houses built just for that too). So all of a sudden a whole lot of young couples were getting their own places - and, as a consequence, a lot of them also felt comfortable getting babies=>more babies. But at the same time all of those nice new houses in the country were super convenient for stork nests=>more storks ;) Gotta be careful with your statistics.

it is just utter common sense to vaccinate. Herd immunity only works so long as the entire herd are immune. The huge increase in contagious childhood diseases(that once were eradicated) over the last few years is entirely down to antivaxers thinking they are special

Actually, to be accurate, herd immunity requires that a sufficiently large proportion of the population be immune, so that the remaining proportion of non-immune individuals are protected by a broken chain of potential infection. It's inherently the definition of herd immunity - the immunity of the greater proportion protects the minor proportion. And the greater the proportion of immune individuals, the greater the protection for the non-immune ones. It might sound like pedantry but it's important to get the facts right in a conversation such as this, otherwise anti-vaxxers will focus on the errors as proof of overall incorrectness.

It really is madness. I’ve worked with autistic children for many years. Me and most who work with that population agree that its something that occurs in the womb during development. Why? It’s the shocking amount of identical twins we see with autism. Twins who no doubt shared the same amniotic sac and were subject to the same developmental issues. It’s not genetic that’s clear too. We just have to find out what’s going on in development. A lot of think it is something in the environment, chemical, or otherwise that is used very commonly within the last 20 years that is causing this issue in some women while they are pregnant. One day the mystery will be solved and these antivaxers will be put to shame.

My generation is hopefully the last one that had significant numbers of kids with polio, German measles, and whooping cough and having seen friends live with that I cannot imagine the level of selfishness it takes for an antivaxxer to be willing to risk one's child suffering from those rather than be autistic.

I must be of the same generation I will never forget the twins who both had been victims of polio in 1970 we were age 6 or 7 - both in metal calipers from the waist down - all it takes for protection is a pink sugar lump

We used to have chicken pox parties - seriously. Sounds really odd - but chicken pox was less serious the younger you were and parents would deliberately allow their child to contract it to "get it over with" dont know if there is a vaccine against it now = personally didnt get it til i was 12 and it was horrible

I do know what you are saying and, in fact, agree. However, by saying this it looks like you give some credence to the vaccine causing autism. The message that it doesn't is the single most important fact. The vaccine does not cause autism.

And some say they won't vaccinate because of the fact they don't want to put money in big pharma's pocket while acting like it doesn't cost a fortune for iron lungs, wheelchairs, 24 hour nursing care for life and..oh yeah..baby sized coffins......

how about how much the extreme prices of insurance & medi-care have shot through the roof once smokers were made to be punished, banished, carried all our sins, only to be greatly overtaken by the overweight & obese sky rocketing medical care. yeah, it's all a fine mess, ain't it though.

It isn't hate. Firstly, people don't really think their child runs the risk of becoming sick or dead if they don't vaccinate, they think it's a tiny, almost impossible risk. (We know they increase the risk but they bypass that.) People are good at convincing themselves of what they want to believe. People are scared of autism, not because they hate autistic children, but because they are scared that they won't be able to cope with a disabled child. It's fear about their abilities. It's an emotional response and so they seek the rational to justify it. I don't agree with anti-vaxxers at all but people fear what they don't understand.

Here we go again! Anti-vaxxers are utter morons and there is no valid argument. Lies, damned lies and statistics - you can make them show anything as the responses prove. Autism not caused by vaccines. End of.

the anti vaxxers even make an issue of it - Declaring on social media that they refuse to have their little darling immune to killer contagious childhood diseases - and the parents themselves would have been immunised as children

thank you @ Chris Jones. there is absolutely no scientific proof. not vaccinating babies or children of any age is signing their death warrant as parents. if you can really live with that; deal with that yourself for eternity.

I get the idea that parents actually WANT their kids to be diagnosed as somewhere on the Autistic spectrum. This will excuse bad behaviour due to bad parenting. Why else would parents drag their unwilling children all over the place just to claim victory

of course they do, it's much easier than what they actually do to account for the screeching fests of their 3-9 yr. olds running around planes, restaurants, destroying the place, making a mess, keeping everyone ultra tense & stressed out. while the parents are ignoring it all with their headphones tuned into their i-phones... oh he/she's autistic - it's OK.... No it's not! grow up - quit ignoring your kids & spend time raising the, listening to them & being with them, no wonder they can't communicate, relate to people or know how to behave - you don't.

Haha, nice graphs. I remember when I was studying probability theory/statistics at uni our teacher told us a fun story - at one point the scientists in one of the European countries decided to do certain research(can't remember the details unfortunately). And...they found that apparently the number of babies being born correlates pretty closely with the number of storks in the area. So...babies are brought by storks after all?! But after more research they found out it's in fact the other way round - the country had recently passed a law that made it easier for newly wed couples to get their own houses(lots of new houses built just for that too). So all of a sudden a whole lot of young couples were getting their own places - and, as a consequence, a lot of them also felt comfortable getting babies=>more babies. But at the same time all of those nice new houses in the country were super convenient for stork nests=>more storks ;) Gotta be careful with your statistics.